Athiests

Jacqueline L. Salmon is really reaching in an article called "In America, Nonbelievers Find Strength in Numbers" in WaPo A legion of the godless is rising up against the forces of religiosity in American society. "People who were ashamed to say there is no God now say, 'Wow, there are others out there who think like me, and it feels damned good,' " said Margaret Downey, president of the Atheist Alliance International, whose membership has almost doubled in the past year to 5,200.

Doubling to now be 5200. Wow, just think how soon it will be before it is a significant number.

It has a 500-person waiting list for its convention in Crystal City later this month.

Maybe holding it in some guy's hotel room is not a good idea.

Focusing fresh attention on atheism in the United States was the publication last week of a book about Mother Teresa that lays out her secret struggle with her doubts about God. "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light" has led some high-profile atheists to say that her spiritual wavering was actually atheism.

You really have to be stretching to assume that Mother Teresa's struggles with faith during the dark periods of her life meant she was an athiest.

"She couldn't bring herself to believe in God, but she wished she could," said Christopher Hitchens, a Washington-based columnist and author of "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," the latest atheist bestseller.

Her wishes were granted, and now she is on the verge of being declared a saint.

In the past two years, five books touting atheism have hit the bestseller lists, outselling such religious tomes as Pope Benedict XVI's book on Jesus, and popular Christian novelist Tim LaHaye's latest book, "Kingdom Come," according to Nielsen BookScan.

I never heard of either book. How to those book sales compare with sales of the Holy Bible?

Representatives of atheist and humanist groups say the books probably haven't converted many religious people.

You don't say.

But, said Lori Lipman Brown, a lobbyist for the Secular Coalition for America, which represents eight atheist or humanist organizations, the books "tremendously increase the visibility of nontheist rights."

You have a right to believe, or not believe whatever you want.